Nashville Mayor Joins Marriage Equality Coalition

The mayor of Music City becomes the first Tennessee member of Mayors for the Freedom to Marry.

BY Trudy Ring

August 22 2014 7:54 PM ET

Karl Dean

Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville has become the first Tennessee member of Mayors for the Freedom to Marry.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” Dean told The Tennessean Friday. “It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a while. … I think it’s really important that we treat people fairly, that we treat people with respect, and that Nashville be a city that embraces that. And I think people should be treated equally.”

Dean, a Democrat who’s been Nashville’s mayor since 2007, is now part of a bipartisan coalition of nearly 500 members, according to a press release from Freedom to Marry, the organization behind the mayoral group. The coalition also now has members from every state in the South, a region where the fight for marriage equality has been particularly challenging.